Crossing Borders
Once in Tarifa you are a mere 14 km from Africa. Ferries to Tangier run frequently letting those coming from Europe in and out at a fairly liesurely pace while those originating in Tangier and sub-Saharan Africa have a much slower go of it. While Europeans and Americans complain of the haggling of the street vendors and the indignity of being ripped off, we heard stories of Africans paying thousands of Euros to travel from Morroco to Europe only to board a boat that dropped them off in the dead of night on a deserted beach elsewhere in Africa.
The Center of Morocco
We went over to Tangier as tourists but saw a bit more. Our adventure began in the center of Tangier in front of Cinema Rif. The large group of us from the borderline academy changed money and then proceeded to catch cabs up to Cafe Hafa (famed hangout of Burroughs, Gysin, Bowles, et al) where the wind kept the tables empty but coffee and mint tea kept us fairly comforted. At Cafe Hafa we met with some folks working with the local indymedia trainers.
Cafe Hafa
From there we went on to a house where some workshops designed to train Moroccan locals in the uses of media activism were being held. It was here that discussion of the Indymedia Estretcho project first caught our attention. (see the interview with Pablo).
The antenna forest along the roofs of Tangier
From this house we could see a real farm of antennas across the roofs of the city, as we discussed the attempts to site a wireless network antenna somewhere in Tangier. Groups from the conference were finding it very dificult to establish a connection this year between wireless antennas on either coast… where last year it had been fairly easy. Noting how very many antennas there were all over the Tangier roof tops it became apparent that the fear that various Morrocan residents had about installing an antenna must be based on a highly surveilled society. It would be hard to imagine that the setting up of one more roof antenna could possibly be discovered by a typical police force…. but if you had your neighbors working in collusion with or even AS undercover government agents, finding an unusual antenna in the forest of the Tangier rooftops might actually be quite an easy undertaking. Seeing that notion of community in action gives a whole new perspective to our favorite term…neighbor….and neighborhood collaboration….
After that meeting we moved on for some lunch and simple tourism. Lest it seem all gloom and doom in Morroco there was more casual local interaction. Jon bought a hajouj in town and was taught a bit about how to playit by a local guy in a cafe while we were waiting for the ferry back to Tarifa.
Locals show Jon how to play his new hajouj as we wait to take the ferry back to Tarifa
Here is a quick time movie (QT)of one part of the performance , and a sound file (suitable for radio airplay) of much more of the performance.
Even without a transmitter Jon found an opportunity for some form of community involvement and local “broadcasting”.